Health + Prevention

What's the right way to clean and care for your glasses?

Tips to keep them sparkling.

20 October 2022

Crystal-clear lenses – eyeglass wearers love that great feeling when they put on their glasses after cleaning and enjoy unhindered vision again. Wouldn't it be wonderful if our glasses were always clean, with smears, streaks and fingerprints a thing of the past? Proper lens care doesn’t only ensure better vision. It also lengthens the life of your glasses. Improper cleaning can damage modern lenses, even if they have an anti-scratch hard coating. ZEISS BETTER VISION provides a few tips on how to clean your glasses: quickly, thoroughly and yet gently at home and on the go.

The most important cleaning tip for optimum vision

Tissues or shirt sleeves should not be used to clean your glasses, even if you’re desperate. Clothing and tissues often have particles of dust or dirt, which when rubbed on the lenses, causes micro-scratches. As these accumulate, they gradually impair the quality of the lenses, and your vision suffers as a result. Scratches cannot be removed either from plastic or glass lenses. Even if the defect only appears to be of a cosmetic nature, light is dispersed by the micro-fine scratches, irritating the eye. Then you have to buy new glasses.

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For cleaning fast – and on the go

If you have to clean your eyeglass lenses quickly, ZEISS lens wipes are the perfect solution. They are small, handy and always immediately ready for use.

A simple microfiber cloth can also clean well, but dry cloths are not always ideal, especially when trying to remove greasy substances. Try moistening the cloth with a cleaning spray and then cleaning the lens.
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Thorough cleaning at home

Apart from ZEISS moistened cleaning wipes, the ZEISS lens cleaning spray in combination with a microfiber cloth is an excellent solution for cleaning your glasses at home. This is just as effective as a thorough cleaning under running water – but it's a lot faster. Apply the spray to the microfiber cloth, not to the lenses themselves. Some lenses in rimless frames feature drill holes, and some lenses in standard frames have screw holes. If liquids constantly enter these holes, this can have an adverse effect in the long term. Thus, it is better to apply the cleaning agent to the cleaning cloth. This ensures that your glasses are not damaged, but there is enough moisture to remove dirt, makeup or grease effectively.
Cleaning your frames – what do the experts recommend?

Improper care may also result in damage to your frames. Follow these tips to ensure that your frames remain as attractive as the day you bought them:

Use lukewarm running water to clean your frames. Always hold your glasses securely on the side of the frame that you are cleaning. This helps avoid warping or, even worse, breakage of the frames.
Clean the temples (arms) of the frames and the nosepads from time to time. These areas can accumulate dirt and oils from your skin and hair. Keeping these clean can also improve the fit of your glasses, as the removal of greasy substances helps prevent slipping.
Give your glasses an occasional treat: the special care offered by an ultrasonic cleaner

The use of ultrasonic cleaners is your best guarantee of thorough, convenient cleaning of your frames. But note: this cleaning method is appropriate for frames only, and should be done by your eye care professional, as they must remove your lenses from your glasses first. Please don’t use the ultrasonic cleaner you use to clean your jewelry on your glasses, but have your eye care professional handle this job.

Your eye care professional will be pleased to clean your lenses in their ultrasonic cleaner - ideally every six months. This is part of eye care professional's standard equipment these days.

The right way to store your glasses

Your glasses deserve a good home! Store them in a hard case whenever you're not wearing them. If you don't have a case with you, make sure you put them in a safe spot, with the lenses facing upwards. It is also important to ensure that your glasses are not exposed to extreme heat. High temperatures can damage even the toughest lenses or frames. Plastic lenses, in particular, should not be subjected to heat. This could have an adverse effect on the durability of lens coatings. Extreme temperature fluctuations could lead to surface cracks due to the different structures of the base lens and the coating. Therefore, neither your case nor your glasses should be left for long periods of time in a sauna or on your car dashboard.

How to keep your glasses cleaner and scratch-free longer

Modern lenses are treated to make them harder to get dirty and easier to clean. Special lens coatings with a hard protective layer and a beading effect (like DuraVision^® Platinum from ZEISS) make your lenses extremely resistant to scratching and help guarantee that dirt, dust and moisture can only adhere to the surface with great difficulty. The benefit: your lenses remain dirt-free longer, ensuring that they're significantly easier to clean. This means you need less time to care for your lenses - and they will have a longer service life.